Generosity doesn’t depend on the size of your wallet. It depends on the size of your heart. If your heart is connected to God, an incredible partnership can take place. From there, you bring everything you have with a great spirit of generosity and God will multiply it.
One of the things I’ve learned from my colleagues who are responsible for talking with ministry investors is that we are giving them an opportunity to exercise their own discipleship. The Lord is the One who gives gifts, and every time we are bringing in our contribution, we are becoming more like Him. He gave Himself generously on the cross, so we can do all we can to bring our five loaves of bread and fish, so to say, to the table. When we do, God multiplies it. Every time we do that, there is an incredible satisfaction that we feel knowing we are participating in God’s kingdom.
It takes commitment to live on the edge purely based on what God showed you, what He spoke to you, and then to pursue it. In one of my favorite statements that Paul makes to the church of Thessalonica, he says, “Every time I remember you, I remember the work that is produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, your endurance inspired by hope.” With ministry and church, I can see how much that means to us.
Is my work being produced by faith and by God? Is my labor being prompted by love? Every time there is difficulty, where do I get my inspiration from? The inspiration comes from the hope we have in Christ. That is what causes us to endure. In all of those scenarios, the heart and the posture is always generosity. I think that if we as leaders can maintain that posture, then generosity will always beget generosity.
What I have seen with discipleship and generosity is that there is discipline in being content in life. Sin entered the world, and as a result we constantly struggle with the question, “How much is enough?” Then we have the modern saying of “Just a little bit more, just a little bit more…” Nothing ever seems to satisfy. We want so much, but when so much is given to us, we want a little bit more. If we are not careful, if we are not being disciples and are not walking in the truth that Jesus wants to teach us, it becomes so easy to get caught up in that race of pursuing “more.” Then there is hardly any time to be generous!
We must learn the art of contentment, the ability to say, “God, this is what is needed. Everything else beyond that is for You.”
God wants us to enjoy our labor, and He gives us everything we need. There is a beauty in God giving me everything in my life in terms of my enjoyment because that is what the Bible actually talks about. On the other hand, we all need to work diligently to have good stewardship with great alignment to Scripture in saying, “Where does contentment enable generosity to go beyond what I am doing at the moment?” That healthy, vibrant balance is needed!
I was in South Africa doing a training, and all I had was ten thousand rands, and there was an offering being taken, and the Lord told me to give away a thousand rands. I had ten thousand rands to give away towards my fees, so I tried to logically debate with the Holy Spirit and finally just obeyed God and gave the thousand rands. The next day, a missionary classmate of mine came to me, put an envelope in my pocket and then ran away. I went to him after seeing there were three thousand rands in the envelope to ask him what was happening. He told me that the Lord spoke to him yesterday to give all he had to me. He wasn’t sure, so he asked the Lord to speak clearly to him. He didn’t have his Bible on him that day, so he turned to a random page in an English/French dictionary and put his finger down. The word he landed on was “support.” He was sure that God was speaking to him. The cool thing was that I had obeyed God with my limitations, and he had obeyed God with his limitations, and in a week’s time we both had paid off our total fees.
If we as leaders will cultivate a culture of generosity, God will take what is given to Him and multiply it, doing a lot more with it than we could ever imagine. We just need to create that room for Him.
Personally, I think generosity isn’t connected to finances; it is connected to attitude. If we can cultivate that attitude, God will be pleased and He will respond in His own way.
Every time I meet missionaries trying to reach people in persecution, I find the greatest example of generosity. These people are willing to be beaten, insulted, and trampled by mobs just to reach people. To be able to do that, to be able to give yourself away, saying, “I believe in Jesus so much…” it is very inspiring! To consider Stephen in the book of Acts is very inspiring. I think in these days we need to pray that God will cause that type of generosity to happen to our churches, where every member of the church recognizes his or her call and generously gives not only their treasure but their time.
Will you join me in prayer, that God will help us to be led by His Holy Spirit and to lead by the vision He has cast. God’s vision should never bother you or put you down. It should be something that you get excited about!
Father, touch my friend today. Give them the willingness and motivation to be led by Your Spirit. Make Your vision for their life plain, and help them to be generous with their resources, time, and lives in service to Your great name. Amen.
